book of life

Individuals with emotional and behavioural disorders have been referred to with a variety of terms:

·         Emotionally disturbed                                                
·         Socially maladjusted
·         Psychologically disordered
·         Emotionally handicapped
·         Psychotic
·         Seriously emotionally disturbed

The term behavioural disorder is currently and more frequently being used by many professional and parents for the ff. Reasons:

> It has greater utility for education than does the term seriously emotionally disturbed.
> It is not associated exclusively with any particular theory of causation and therefore with any particular set of intervention techniques.
> It affords  a more comprehensive assessment of the population
> It is less stigmatizing than the term serious emotional disturbance
>It is more representative of the students who are disabled by their behaviour and currently served under IDEA.

      

CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS WITH BEHAVIOR DISORDER

 Intelligence and achievement

     -Academic deficits in basic academic skills and educational achievement. Typically, the student performs below expected grade level.

Intelligence and achievement·        

SOCIAL SKILLS AND INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

                        The ability to develop and maintain interpersonal relationships during childhood and adolescence is an important predictor of present and future adjustment. Many students with emotional and behavioural disorders often experience great difficulty in making and keeping friends.

ANTISOCIAL BEHAVOUR
-                       The most common pattern of behaviour consists of antisocial behaviour, sometimes called externalizing behavioural disorder (eg. Out of seat runs around the room, disturbs peers, hits or fights, ignores the teacher, complains  excessively, steals, destroys property, argues, distorts the truth, and so forth.)

WITHDRAWN BEHAVIOUR
-          Some children are anything but aggressive. Their problem is just the opposite, too little social interaction with others. They are said to have internalizing behavioural disorders.
-          Fearful of things without reason, frequently complain of being inside or hurt and go into deep bouts of depression.
-          They are less disturbing to teachers than antisocial students, but these students is endanger of not being identified or helped.

                             

IRRESPONSIBILITY
                        Is common students will deny they did anything wrong and then confronted with evidence they blame other students.

According to Freud, every child goes through certain situations, such as nursing, bottle feeding, and toilet training, that contains potential conflicts between the child’s desire for instant satisfaction or gratification and the parent’s wishes, which may involve delaying the child’s satisfaction. How these conflicts resolve and whether the child becomes fixated at one stage because of too much or little satisfaction greatly influenced development of personality ad onset future problems.
1. Oral Stage – Time. Early infancy: first 18 months of life.
Potential conflict. The oral stage lasts for the first 18 months of life and is a time when infat’s pleasure seeking is centered on the mouth.
2. Anal Stage – Time. Early infancy: 1 ½ to 3 years.
Potential conflict. The anal stage lasts from the age of about 1 ½ to 3 and is a time when the infant’s pleasure seeking on the centered on the anus and its functions of elimination.
3. Phallic Stage – Time. Early childhood: 3-6 years.
Potential conflict. The Phallic stage lasts from the age of about 3 to 6 and is a time when the infant’s pleasure seeking on the centered on the genitals. Freud theorized that the phallic stage is particularly important for personality development because of the occurrence of the Oedipus complex which means the process in which a child completes with a parent of the same sex for the affections and pleasure of the parent of the opposite sex.
4. Latency Stage – Time. Middle and late childhood: 6-puberty.
Potential conflict. The Latency stage lasts from the age of about 6 to puberty and is a time when the child represses sexual thoughts and engages in nonsexual activities, such as developing social and intellectual skills. At puberty, sexually reappears and marks the beginning of new stage, called genital stage.
5. Genital Stage – Time. Puberty to adulthood.
Potential conflict. The Genital stage lasts from puberty to adulthood and is a time when the individual has renewed sexual desires that he or she seeks to fulfill through relationships with other people. How a person meets the conflicts of genital stage depends on how conflicts in the first three stages were developed.

1. Biological factors
          -genetic, neurological or biochemical factors, single or in combination

2. Environmental factors
          -Environmental factors are considered important in the development of emotional and behavioural disorders in all conceptual models, however professional and researchers view what behaviour is important and how it is analyzed differently.

DODGE (1993) HAS IDENTIFIED 3 PRIMARY CAUSAL FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONDUCT DISORDER AND ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR:             

a.      An adverse early rearing environment.
b.      An aggressive pattern of behaviour displayed on entering school.
c.       Social rejection of peers.             

1. Family/home
-          The relationship children have with their parents, particularly during the early years is critical to the way they learn to act.           

2. School
-          School is where the children spend the largest portion of their time outside the home. Teacher expectations and actions greatly affects the students life and behaviour.          

3. Society
-          Societal problems can impact on a student’s emotional and behavioural status. An impoverished environment, including poor nutrition, a disrupted family, and a sense of frustration and hopelessness may lead to aggressive, acting-out behaviour.

Behavioural disorders: Implications for teachers

1.      Define teacher’s expectations
Problems occur where there is a discrepancy between what the teachers expects and what students do thus , we are dealing with two dimensions: teachers expectations and students behaviour. If we want to increase appropriate behaviour, a necessary first step is for the teacher to explicitly, clearly, and fairly define behavioural expectations. Teachers need to be consistent with their personality and instructional style.     

2.     Set rules
Clear rule setting is helpful for all students. Expectations should be explicit, fair and within the student’s range of achievement.
a.      Rules should be reasonable.
b.      Rules should be objective.
c.       Use as few rules as possible.
d.      Be consistent with consequences for breaking rules                         

3.    Preventive discipline
Experience tells us that the most effective means of working with students who display emotional or behavioural disorders is preventive in nature. Rather than responding to inappropriate behaviours, use positive interactive approaches that removes the need for inappropriate behaviours.